Muslim Religious Leaders Condemn Holocaust Deniers

Awesome! Muslim intellectuals and Imams gathered together from Bosnia, India, Indonesia, Jordan, the Palestine Territories, Saudi Arabia,
Turkey and America to make the joint statement. The U.S. State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom organized the effort.

Muslim religious leaders and scholars from around the globe issued a joint statement Monday condemning any attempts to deny or justify the
Holocaust in which six million European Jews perished under Nazi Germany.

“We bear witness to the absolute horror and tragedy of the Holocaust where millions upon millions of human souls perished, more than half of whom
were people of the Jewish faith,” said a statement signed by 10 leading Islamic figures including President of the Islamic Society of North America,
Imam Mohamed Magid and India's Chief Imam, Umer Ahmed Ilyasi.

“We acknowledge, as witnesses, that it is unacceptable to deny this historical reality and declare such denials or any justification of this tragedy
as against the Islamic code of ethics,” they said, adding they “stand shoulder to shoulder with our Jewish brothers and sisters in condemning
anti-Semitism in any form.”

Good for them. Taking steps for peace and understanding.

This is being picked up by many various news sources.
I won't list them .. too many to list ...

Good catch, and I'm glad you posted it here. There's a lot of anti-Islam sentiment (and it's justified, IMO) so it's nice to see the good these
folks do. Nice balance, and a more true picture of the average Muslim than we are led to believe.

Well, I'll be..... That is a surprise and a very welcome one. Mark my respect going up several notches. They won't have made friends in some circles
with that, to say the very least, but good for them in standing up to say the truth and say it without qualification or hesitation. That is how I
think true progress between cultures gets made. Way to go!

Great catch too. I'm glad you happened to be the one to find it and bring it for us.

I'll stick with the scientific method and declare that a NUMBER can hardly be equivalent to "reality". It's what we observe, and it may be subject
to systematic and statistical error. Can you imagine that instead of 6 million Jews that are said to have perished there was an equally tragic and
huge number of 5.5 million?

At face-value, the joint statement of acknowledging the Holocaust and overcoming antisemitism is refreshing and gives hope for peace.

In the linked article, the joint statement states:

“Together, we pledge to make real the commitment of ‘never again’ and to stand united against injustice wherever it may be found in the
world today."

To be completely honest, the only way Muslims can insure that a Holocaust "never again" happens is if Muslims either reject the
Qur'an and Sunnah,... or commit the sin bid'ah (religious innovation) by revising and changing Islamic theology.

According to the two most authentic and trustworthy Hadith sources (Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim),
Muhammad is quoted as saying:

"The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews , when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees
will say O Muslims, O Abdullah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, (a certain kind of tree) would not do that because
it is one of the trees of the Jews."

And here is what allah says in the Qur'an:

"Strongest among men in enmity to the believers wilt thou find the Jews and Pagans."
- Suratul Ma'idah, Ayah 82

Like I said, I am skeptically hopeful about the joint-statement, but Islam's prophet and their god allah give much reason for doubt. Here's to
hope!!!!

From a more cynical point of view, the holocaust can be used and abused in various ways.

One way would be to say that since Europeans caused the holocaust, it is only fair that the Jewish homeland should be on their territory, and that the
violence against the Palestinians was a further crime against humanity to try and repay an earlier crime that the Muslims had nothing to do with.

So let me get this right. Over half of those murdered during WW2 were Jews? I understand that rough estimates put those murdered somewhere between 40
and 60 million civilians. Indeed an undeniable holocaust. But more than half of those were Jews? When did 6 become half of 40, never mind
60?

Great analogy with Mother Teresa! There are a few sects of Islam that espouse a non-violent theology, such as the Sufis, Ahmadiyya, and Tablighi
Jamaat.

However, skepticism of the majority body of Muslims being against Jewish genocide arises when one understands that their prophet Muhammad said a
Jewish genocide by Muslims will be one signal of the End Times. Their eschatology causes many Muslims to anxiously await the war against the main body
of Jews.

I think you are counting ALL the war dead in that 60 figure.
The 6 million comes from the camps and work farms and ghettos.
It's based on the preWWII Jewish population in the area
compared to the post WWII Jewish population and it's keeping
in mind those who escaped overseas.

That's why I say that these folks are very brave. They have an uphill battle against a lot of obstacles ...
ingrained thought process .... heavy duty religious rhetoric .... 'heavy hitters' in the Islamic world who disagree with them .... etc etc. I just
have to give them a pat on the back for making the statement .. ya' know??

I think you are counting ALL the war dead in that 60 figure.
The 6 million comes from the camps and work farms and ghettos.
It's based on the preWWII Jewish population in the area
compared to the post WWII Jewish population and it's keeping
in mind those who escaped overseas.

At least, that's what I've read ...

I know where this 6 million figure originated. Fact is, it's an arbitrary figure with no solid factual background. It could be more, or it could be
less. Some have calculated that there were far more camps than originally considered and the true number of specifically Jewish deaths is more like 20
million. Some have suggested that the number is closer to 80,000. Johns Hopkins suggested that no "Ethnic Jews" perished at all.

Just what are these people admitting to? Someone else's dogma. Millions of people were killed, that much at least is undeniable, indisputable fact,
and all of them should be remembered equally. A Jewish death is not of higher importance because they were Jewish. Despite the rantings of many a
radical Rabbi.

Originally posted by threewisemonkeys
A Jewish death is not of higher importance because they were Jewish. Despite the rantings of many a radical Rabbi.

I don't think that these Muslim religious leaders are saying that the deaths of the Jews were 'of higher importance' at all. It seems pretty clear
that they are just saying to other Muslims .. look, it happened, it is real, deal with it.

Seems more like they are doing a reality check with those who say it didn't happen.
That's how I see it anyways.

I don't know of any Jewish Rabbi who says that Jewish deaths are more important than the other deaths that happened during WWII. There could be some
... but I haven't seen any. I see Jewish Rabbis having to talk about it and push the facts on people because certain people DENY that it happened.
But I haven't seen any 'those deaths are more important than other deaths' kind of thing. If anyone says anything like that ... they are just
plain wrong.

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